


Disguises and Deceptions

by pagerunner



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Episode 70 spoilers, F/M, Gen, M/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-10
Updated: 2016-10-10
Packaged: 2018-08-20 13:37:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8250988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pagerunner/pseuds/pagerunner
Summary: Wherein I send Percy back to the Whitestone library, this time to have a conversation with Raishan...and he gets an uncomfortable look at an assortment of her masks. A slight alternate take on episode 70, where they have more time between meeting Raishan and enacting their eventual plans.





	

Raishan was wearing another disguise when Percy found her in the library.

She’d been changing them repeatedly over the last two days, seemingly just to prove a point. Percy found himself watching every unfamiliar face around the castle grounds, wary for Raishan’s tells: a certain arrogance about her posture, the particular tilt of her smile. He knew she had to be doing this to test him. To put all of them on edge.

She also, Percy discovered too late, was watching his reactions to each form she took, as if she were triangulating on something. Raishan, after all, was terribly clever, and very observant. When Percy stepped into the library to consult one more book about what they might use as bait for Vorugal, he came face to face with the results.

Lounging in a nearby chair was a tall, slim man, dark-haired and broad-shouldered, a book in his long-fingered hands. He looked northern in extraction, and there were hints in his features of several Whitestone guards. The resemblance was enough that he seemed a natural fit here, but also enough to indicate which people Percy’s gaze had lingered on a little too long. His attention wasn’t diverted by Percy’s entrance and sudden, surprised halt. He just gave one page a desultory flip and read on, or at least pretended to, while a sideways smile crossed his face.

 _Her_ face, Percy supposed.

“Fascinating collection you’ve amassed here,” Raishan said. The tone was unmistakable, even if the voice was new: low and smoky, and distinctly amused. She flipped another page. “You humans certainly _try_ , despite your pitifully limited perspective.”

Percy braced himself. “Not so limited if you know I can recognize you at a glance, regardless of your face.”

Raishan finally looked up. Her dark eyes flashed. “You’ve proven just capable enough of learning to be amusing. A worthwhile quality in any conquest.”

Percy willed himself not to react to that last word. Going by the way Raishan smirked, he suspected he was not entirely successful.

He went on breathing evenly, though, as Raishan set aside the book, unfolded herself from the chair, and stood. To his mild annoyance, the body she’d chosen was a couple inches taller than his own. It wasn’t enough to seem exaggerated, but was certainly enough to make a point. Percy’s chin lifted, however begrudgingly.

“I do hope,” Raishan said, “that you’ve come here to accomplish something productive. I grow tired of waiting.”

“As do we all. I have a plan and a purpose here, I assure you.”

“Hm.” Raishan looked him over. “I do suppose an afternoon’s reading is the most suitable activity for you at present. You’re still so _pale_ , Percival.”

Again, he concentrated on not reacting. _She’s only baiting you,_ he told himself. _You_ are _recovering, no matter what she says._ Yet despite his improved health, the much needed nights of rest, he still felt worn. He couldn’t entirely be surprised that it showed. He only wished it were easier to hide it, for Raishan’s gaze upon him felt downright predatory.

Given that the body she’d chosen was undeniably—and calculatedly—attractive, the feelings it stirred in him were…contradictory, at best.

Percy met Raishan's gaze, doing his best to push all that aside. “So how goes your own convalescence? You’re hardly one to throw stones about that of all topics.”

Her eyelids lowered a fraction. Percy held his tongue, intending to wait her out, and she took the opportunity to begin striding around him in a long, deceptively idle study. “Human bodies are curious things,” she said. “Resilient in some ways. So breakable in others. The things I’ve endured would _shatter_ you.”

Percy found himself thinking back to darkness, and pain…and a hand reaching through the shadows. “Perhaps,” he said quietly. “But we find strength from beyond ourselves in ways you’d never understand.”

Her voice went skeptical. “You mean to say in each other?”

“Yes, sometimes.”

“Yet you keep seeking me out alone.”

Percy smiled wryly. “Well, as you said yourself…I’m a bit of a strange one.”

“Quite,” she said softly, and stopped directly before him.

It was difficult not to react to the proximity, but Percy tried. Raishan was an odd presence: human in all the ways his senses could detect, yet now that he knew what she was, seemingly immense. Her extra height was barely necessary, since she’d have been looming over him even at Pike’s stature. Still, in this form, this close…

He warred for a moment between a shiver and an involuntary flush. Raishan slowly smiled.

“Am I unsettling you?” she asked mildly.

Knowing that to deny it would be pointless, Percy almost laughed. It broke the tension enough that he found words again, at least. “It would be folly to claim otherwise,” he admitted. “A dragon entering my home uninvited, poking her nose in at every opportunity? Seems designed to be unsettling.”

“Indeed. However. I doubt that’s the crux of the problem.” Her head tilted. “Would you prefer I wear another face?”

“Whichever one you choose makes little difference to me at this stage.”

Raishan made a knowing little sound, and the slightest shake of her head. This time, her teeth showed in her smile. “Perhaps a female of your species would be more acceptable?”

Percy couldn’t help but twitch at the near-zoological description. Raishan, who’d undoubtedly noticed, glanced aside to study one hand as she turned it in midair. “Granted, none of your companions _are_ human, are they? An interesting commentary upon you. And upon them.” Her fingers curled inward. “Your druid friend is quite the firebrand. I wonder how either of you might react to me wearing her face.”

“I wouldn’t advise it,” said Percy, imagining Keyleth’s rage. “She does tend to break things when she’s angry.”

Raishan didn’t rise to that. “Or there’s the other one.” She turned to him again, her stare increasingly intent. “The one you so often stand beside. Dark. Lithe. So fierce.” Her head tilted. “So fragile.”

He opened his mouth to deny that last, but Raishan didn’t give him the chance. As he watched, her features….shifted. The strong line of her chin became tapered, the shape of her face more angled. Her body went slighter and more delicately curved. The complexion was already close enough, the ears and hair a simple adjustment. Just a few lines altered, and all at once…

Percy didn’t have to imagine rage this time, no matter how he tried to reason himself down, because Raishan had no right to wear _that_ face. He clenched his jaw, trembling where he stood, and felt a familiar shadow stirring in the back of his mind. For an instant, just one, he imagined how Raishan might react if he let the whole of it loose.

Unfortunately, though, he knew the truth of it. What power he had was smoke and illusion, little more, and Raishan would see right through it. So with effort, Percy made himself go still. He reached for coldness instead. _Whitestone in winter,_ he thought. _Ice and clouded skies…_

He felt the frost creep up his spine, and let the world go gray.

“You may be a fair mimic of faces,” he said, softly and carefully, “but you haven’t a shred of her soul.”

Raishan watched him through Vex’s eyes. Percy didn’t let it shake him.

“I can see it,” he went on. “Any of us could see it now. Your disguises won’t fool us in any way that matters. And if you think we would hesitate to face you down in _any_ form you’ve stolen, I’m afraid you’ll find you’ve miscalculated.”

She stood silently for a moment. Her smile turned very strange.

“You _are_ fascinating,” she said, one finger extending to lift his chin for another studious look. There was an odd duality to the touch: human in proportion but suggesting a much sharper form, as if it were a barely sheathed claw. “Someday I may have to put this to the test.”

“Try me,” Percy said flatly.

Raishan arched an eyebrow, and her form began shifting again.

Percy stood frozen as the visage before him changed. Soon Raishan met his gaze on an exact level, one set of blue eyes staring into another. He was too startled to react when Raishan leaned so close that he could feel her breath as she whispered to him.

In his own voice.

“Oh,” she said, “I intend to.”

Percy watched himself draw back, a dragon’s smile slanting across a cold, cruel face. Then Raishan turned away. He had the faint impression of another shift, the knowledge that the figure walking out the door was anonymous again, but the image remained seared into his mind no matter how he tried to send it away.

Shivering properly this time, Percy returned to the books.

In the end, it was a long, lonely night of research, and even when Vex joined him at last, he kept his cold hands to himself and a wary eye on her—and once or twice, even on his own reflection in the library’s frosted windows.

Just in case.


End file.
